Posts Tagged ‘most appealing cars’

Porsche led the latest APEAL study overall, three models, like the 911 also winning their segments.

It’s become conventional wisdom that Americans have fallen out of love with the automobile and would just as soon click on a smartphone app to call a ride-sharing service as actually own a vehicle.

But that doesn’t seem to pan out when you read the results of the latest APEAL study by J.D. Power and Associates. If anything, a summary of the report suggests “car owners’ love affair with new vehicle is stronger than ever.”

Power to the People!

“Many automakers are getting better and better at giving consumers what they want in a vehicle,” explained Dave Sargent head of global automotive research at Power. That’s especially true in mainstream market segments, he added, as “non-premium vehicles” add more and more of the safety and infotainment technologies traditionally reserved for high-line products.

Mini showed the biggest improvement overall, thanks to the new Cooper hardtop.

When it comes to adding new high-tech hardware to their vehicles, automakers are generating a mix of both praise and complaints, according to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates.

On the whole, new vehicle buyers have rated their 2015 models higher than ever, and Power’s 20th annual APEAL study gives a chunk of the credit to the latest safety technologies, such as blind-spot monitoring and forward collision warning systems. At the same time, motorists registered a number of complaints about faulty infotainment hardware and balky voice recognition systems.

At the Cutting Edge!

With rare exception, automakers saw their APEAL scores improve this year, the overall average rising to 798 points out of a possible 1,000. But the Korean makers collectively posted the biggest improvements, while the Japanese lagged behind the industry on the whole.